Hungarian GP: Qualifying notes - Marussia

NEWS STORY26/07/2014

Jules Bianchi will start tomorrow's 70 lap Hungarian Grand Prix from row eight of the grid, after storming through to Q2 for the second time this season and delivering a qualifying lap good for 16th place.

His teammate Max Chilton had a tougher session. Having improved his car steadily through free practice, as he embarked on his second flying lap his car suffered an electrical problem which left him with no power and he was forced to limp home, unable to realise the potential of his qualifying package.

Jules Bianchi: "I'm really, really happy to be starting the race from 16th position, after making it to Q2 once more, and in the dry, without any tricky conditions. We did not have the best start to the weekend but we have made up for that today. My first run was not so good, as I made a mistake, but on the second run we had a perfect qualifying. So we are in Q2 for the second time this year and that is great for me and the Team. Tomorrow will not be an easy race but I hope it can be a good one."

Max Chilton: "Obviously I'm pretty disappointed with today's result. It's been a bit of a struggle so far this weekend, but we had managed to improve the car for qualifying, so it's a real shame that we weren't able to see what we could do with those improvements. The first run was good but on the second run I had an electrical problem which meant I had no power and so I wasn't able to do my quick lap. I think based on how the car was feeling on the first run, we could have had Kobayashi today and been much closer to Jules. It's always a tough race here and difficult to overtake, so tomorrow won't be easy, but we'll give it our best shot."

John Booth, Team Principal: "Again, it seems we have had a day of two halves. Jules was much happier with the car balance this morning and with his engineers made more progress through FP3 on improving the balance. We had a small hiccup with a suspension change at the end of the session, which meant he missed getting a time on the option tyre, but at least he was able to feel the balance of the car. In qualifying he made an error on his first lap but he came back brilliantly to post a time that was good for Q2. Of course, it is clear that we were helped by the guys running primes, but still this is all part of the strategy for Q1 and we nailed it correctly. With Max FP3 went more smoothly but he was not as happy with the car as he had been in FP2. Again, working diligently with his engineers, they improved the car for qualifying and on the first run he was much happier. For the second run I'm afraid we had an electronics issue, which meant the car was stuck in a mode that gave Max no power and we were unable to fix this via the steering wheel switches, so he missed the lap. Overall we can be happy we got it right with Jules and we are sorry for Max. We have to get on top of these issues, which could have caught either car out today."